Kiss-in protest for gay rights in Cuba

Gay activists in Cuba held a kiss-in protest to demand more rights for LGBT people ahead of the island's second pride festival.

The demonstration at the Ramón Fonst sports arena saw 50 campaigners hold banners calling for more respect from the Communist government.

LGBT group Project Rainbow, organizers of the Kiss-in for Diversity and Equality, said in a statement: 'With this public and affectionate action we invite you to make the LGBT community in Cuba visible. We are part of the nation.'

Activists later delivered a petition to the National Assembly of People’s Power.

'Our document calls on the Cuban government to fully comply with international agreements it has signed on human rights, especially those that apply to LGBT rights,' gay activist Ignacio Estrada told the Miami Herald.

Protestors are also calling for the government to launch an investigation into hard-labor camps which gays and political prisoners were held during the 1960s and to look into the persecution of LGBT people in the workplace.

Cuba's gay pride parade will take place in the capital Havana on Sunday (1 July).

Last year's event saw a number of gay activists arrested and the march initially banned on the grounds that it was not necessary in the country.